Halaw (Writing Exercises)

THE COURSE (2)

Today is Friday. It has been 4 days and 18 hours since Dominique have met with Ty at the Main Library. It feels like ages ago to her. And the guy still have not contacted her. She is frowning down at her cellphone, hoping against hope that it would suddenly beep with a message from Ty.

She almost jumped out of her skin when the message alert tone beeped right after saying a wish. 'Wow, that was fast,' she thought. The gods must have been listening to her today. She excitedly read the message only to get disappointed.

After your class, see you at the front steps of DL Umali. That's the message. And it's from her childhood friend and batchmate, Kim. What a letdown. She is itching to throw her cellphone against the wall.

"I'll text you the when and the where of our first lesson." That was what Ty told her.

"And when would that be? When I'm wrinkled and gray?," she mumbled to herself, extremely irritated. If the guy does not want to teach her, why didn't he just tell her that already? Why make her wait for nothing? She is not blackmailing him or anything along those lines. Why does he not extend the simple courtesy of saying 'no' to her face? If he did, then she would have not been pining away waiting for a text message that may or may not come. Like a girlfriend to be jilted. That thought increased her irritation. She glared down at the offending cellphone again.

____________________

"Hey, are you ready for later?" That was Carly asking about their friendly match against the international students. Their Coach decided to pit them against the internationals today and he is really looking forward to it.

He knows why Carly is so worried for today. Ty has been irrational for the past few weeks. Weeks ago he felt so down and he knows that his friend can sense it. On Monday, he broke up with Bernadette. That reminder brought a wince to his face. That was one very bad break-up. There were a lot of screaming and crying and threats before he was able to escape from the girl's apartment. He decided to take things slowly with Sylvia. Bernadette seems vengeful and he doesn't want to scare Sylvia away. So for now, he ended up girlfriendless. Something that has not happened before and Carly is rightfully worried. For Ty, sports and sex runs hand-in-hand. He has sex for good luck. He has another one for celebration. Today, he has neither.

"Man, stop mothering me, okay? I'm going to kick international asses later so relax," he assured him.

"Just making sure. I can call one of mine for you, you know," Carly is referring to one of his several women.

Ty laughed out loud. "Thanks but no thanks. I can hunt my own."

Carly shrugged. "Your choice. I'm just saying that if you need one for emergency, I'm willing to share."

He shooked his head at his friend. And people say that Carly is better than he is? Yes, he treats a tumble in bed like nothing special but he is not as heartless as Carly who would share his women. That's ultimate objectification of the species.

Suddenly, he heard the message tone alert of his phone and when he checked, the name that appeared on his screen made him smile.

I'm turning into an old woman waiting for your text. Are you really in or what? Dominica. He almost laughed out loud. Just from the structuring of the message, he could imagine the piercing glare the little girl must have on her face while sending that message.

He immediately replied. You can't hurry love, baby. I have a game later, come and cheer for me.

After a while, the message alert tone beeped again. Why would I?! I don't know squat about soccer. Why don't you just tell me if you are going to teach me or not to get this over with. He grinned. Really this girl is something.